Trump’s Warsaw Salvo Against Designs of the Left

Last week, President Donald Trump cited the innovation and cultural preeminence of the Western world during a speech in Warsaw, Poland. Although his European trip was lauded by many analysts, several far left news outlets immediately expressed indignation at Trump’s oratory, characterizing it as “racist” and having “white nationalist” overtones. Nevertheless, many Americans were quite gratified given their belief that it was high time an American president stood up for Western values and accomplishments, particularly after eight years of Barack Obama and his surrogates undermining them.

Slate’s Jamelle Bouie wrote on July 7, “Trump’s speech in Poland defending ‘Western civilization’ from its enemies sounded less like Reagan’s Cold War–era speeches than white nationalist rhetoric.” The Washington Post’s editorial board member Jonathan Capehart published an Op-Ed entitled “Trump’s white-nationalist dog whistles in Warsaw,” but he failed to articulate precisely how Trump’s speech embodied the values of white nationalism.

“When in doubt, cry racism” is evidently the default for leftists across many areas of endeavor, at least when they are attempting to shamelessly demonize someone, and the president is obviously their biggest target at present.
In the relativist modality of the far left, not only is Western civilization inherently predatory, opportunistic, oppressive and, of course, racist, but anything that represents a departure from the values or achievements in the West is to be extolled, venerated, and celebrated. A society wherein families performed ritualistic sacrifice and cannibalism on all of their firstborn infants could not be denounced for such barbarity, since all societies, cultures, and religions are equally virtuous – with the exception of the West and its capitalist, Christian majority, which has done nothing but exploit and oppress others.

One may not know whether to laugh or cry upon evaluating the aggregate of establishment press complaints concerning Trump’s Warsaw speech. One might be inclined to laugh because their charges are so patently absurd; however, one might just as likely cry due to the fact that the leftist hacks who pass for legitimate journalists actually feel comfortable rendering such preposterous opinions, and because millions of their deluded readers and viewers will believe them as a matter of course.

While Trump articulated the virtues and accomplishments of the West in his speech, he did not actually discount or minimize those of other societies, but in the context of the current political climate and the subsequent criticism Trump received, a “compare and contrast” might be helpful in determining what I believe to be the inherent superiority of Western culture – at least alongside those cultures to which the left typically pays homage.

We can start with Islam, if for no other reason than this creed is currently at the top of the left’s list for imparting summary deference, despite the fact that Islam’s ascendancy in the West has brought nothing good to Western nations. Obscure and nebulous propaganda referencing Islam’s vast contributions to the world notwithstanding, we see a belief system that has been at war with itself since its inception, and which encompasses in its doctrine some of the most retrograde and barbaric practices imaginable.

In this context, it is not, as so many on the left and the right maintain, simply militant Muslims who represent a threat to all things Western. It is painfully evident that Islamists and jihadis simply do the heavy lifting for Islam at large, but Islam as a whole always benefits. Muslims repeatedly indicate that they will gain preeminence in the West, and even have a doctrine wherein it is acceptable to employ deceit in this effort (taqiyya).

One might examine cultures of the Eastern world as well. Certainly China, Japan, India, and other nations in the East have rich cultural and technological histories, but they have without exception been playing “catch-up” to the West for the last couple of centuries with regard to that which societies and individuals consider beneficial. It would also be vulgar misrepresentation and self-delusion to subscribe to the notion that the billions of people in these societies were striving to become less Westernized, rather than moreso. Finally, while Western school children are taught that there were once societies on the African continent that were pillars of cultural achievement in bygone days, excepting ancient Egypt, there is scant evidence of this.

The last nail in the coffin for the left’s characterization of Trump’s Warsaw speech as racist or xenophobic is the fact that most Western nations – the United States in particular – have been far more willing than other nations to embrace and incorporate aspects of non-native cultures into our own, and to allow their adherents to freely practice them here.

Thus, once can conclude with a high degree of confidence that the left’s accusations of racism as regards Trump’s speech are simply more feeble, craven attempts to enroll low-information voters, their deluded base, and the profoundly stupid in their quest to bring down the West.